Long before he toted a machine gun and traded quips with Mr. T, George Peppard starrred as the suave, clever insurance investigator Thomas Banacek on the Boston-based mystery series Banacek. Both characters loved their cigars.

A company called Hart Sharp Video is going to release a two-disc DVD set of the show's first season. It will be released on May 15 and is part of a series of sets they're going to release (the others are The Crow and Trapped In TV Guide, a prank show based around classic TV shows). Extras on the Banacek discs will include a photo gallery, a microsite, and a special TV Guide crossword puzzle.

OK, so you're one of the people who is waiting for the first season sets of The Streets of San Francisco and/or The Untouchables to be released. But now comes word that both Paramount sets have been delayed a week.

But there's one piece of good news, for fans of Twin Peaks: the second season will actually be released a week earlier than previously announced, on April 3. That's a Paramount title too. Maybe they wanted to get this one out a week earlier than the other two releases for some reason.

I'd just like to take this opportunity to confront Adam Finley about the comments he has made about me on this very blog. Just last week he told you that I had lied when I said that Flipper was coming out on DVD. Well, Mr. Finley, Flipper is coming out on DVD, and here's the proof.

The set will contain all 30 episodes from the first season, on four discs. No word yet on commentaries or other extras. Though it would be cool to see what the Ricks kids are up to these days (Brian Kelly, who played the dad, died in 2005).

I'm not quite sure why Adam doubted my original story. He just doesn't seem to understand the special mind bond I have with dolphins around the globe. Then again, nobody does. It's something I've had to put up with my whole life. Nobody understands.

No, Spielberg didn't produce the show or even direct an episode, but it is one of his favorite TV shows and he admires creator/director J.J. Abrams so much that he agreed to be interviewed for the set.

Spielberg liked the show so much that he actually asked Abrams to write the War of the Worlds movie for him, but Abrams couldn't do it because he was working on Lost. Of course, after that, Tom Cruise also contacted Abrams because he was a big fan of Alias (he got the DVDs and watched them all in one weekend, as he has said many times in interviews) and he hired Abrams to write the third Mission: Impossible movie.

On a related note, I had planned on buying the Alias set this month, but after buying the West Wing and Twilight Zone sets and it being Christmas and all, I really don't want to spend the money right now. But if any TV Squad reader (or coworker of mine) would like the buy the set for me, well, I wouldn't say no to that at all.